Educational apparatus



Aug. 11, 1936.

E. P. PUMAR EDUCATIONAL APPARATUS Filed Dec. 25, 1935 a @N l.

Patented Aug. 11, 1936 EJNE'E'ED STATES PATENT GFFECE 4 Claims.

While the invention is adapted to other uses it will be described in connection with educational apparatus.

The purpose of the invention is to provide means for teaching and examining pupils. It

contemplates mechanism for selectively disclosing on a board various indicia which may be useful for educational or the like purposes. Associated with the board is means by which the .instructor at a distance may control the display mechanism associated with individual elements. This is associated with mechanism by which the instructor at a distance may place certain selected elements in condition for operation by a pupil 5 or the like at the display mechanism.

In the accompanying drawing is shown in Fig. 1 a front plan elevation of one form of apparatus for carrying out the invention a portion being broken away to show underlying mechanism and certain electrical mechanism being illustrated in more or less diagrammatic form. Fig. 2 is a transverse horizontal section on the line 2-2 of Fig. l, and Fig. 3 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

251;: The construction illustrated consists of two main parts which may be referred to as the display mechanism and the remote control mechanism. The display mechanism consists of a box or cabinet Ill provided with partitions II which c may be divided into a plurality of separate light insulated compartments A, B, C etc. The faces of the various compartments are open and may be provided with suitable transparencies. The upper series of transparencies I3 is illustrated as 532 film of celluloid or the like flexible material which may be carried by rollers l4 and I5 arranged at opposite ends of the mechanism. Handles i6 and H are provided for the respective rollers. Intermediate the rolls the film may pass .mgthrough guideways provided between the ends of the partitions H and cross strips l8. The transparent devices may be merely plates or sheets instead of the film rolls. Such plates or sheets are illustrated at E9, 20 and 2|. These may be stifi -:or flexible and may be made of glass, celluloid or other suitable material and may be removable and interchangeable in any suitable manner.

The matter carried by the various transparencies may be of any suitable sort. Thus it may 50 con'sist of letters, words, numerals, or geometric figures as illustrated or of any other materials such as animals, music notes, flowers, plants, geographical data, statistics, the multiplication table and the like.

55 In each of the compartments A, B, C etc. may

be one or more electric lights 22. Associated with each of these compartments and adjacent the transparencies which it illuminates are switches 23 for controlling the respective underlying lights under certain conditions. In general the switches 5 are illustrated diagrammatically no actual operating mechanism being shown excepting in the compartments A, B and C where the switch contact members are diagrammatically illustrated at or they may stay closed until manipulated togo" open position and when desired they may be arranged so that they may be operated singly or in groups. The switches on the control board 25 may be connected with the display apparatus by means of wires which may be incorporated= 5 into a cable 2'! and the terminals marked and may be connected with a source of electric current through the usual wall plugs or in any other suitable manner.

The purpose of the apparatus is to aid in the instruction of children or other pupils. The main display apparatus may be suitably located in a class room where it may be readily visible to both the instructor and the class. The instructor may have the control board 25 at his desk which may be so arranged as to give him a view of not merely the display apparatus but also of the pupils who may thus be constantly kept under supervision.

Let it be assumed that the instructor wishes to -40 indicate and inform the class with respect to the letter 0. With the switch 3! in the vdotted. line position he will operate the control switch 260.. This will close a circuit beginning at the terminal marked through the wire 28 of the cable Zl to the light 22 behind the transparency 0 through the wire 29 to one of the switches 30. It being remembered that the throw over knife switch 3i is in the position illustrated in dotted lines the circuit will then be closed through the Wire 32 to the other side of the source of electric supply. This will cause its lamp 22 to illuminate the letter O and call the attention of the class to it. The construction is such that light in a compartment will through the switch marked 2611 45' illuminate only the transparency appurtenant to that compartment. Likewise by selecting other keys or switches on the board 25 the instructor may illuminate singly or in groups other transparencies on the main display board. When this has proceeded for a suflicient time to attract the attention of the class to a sufficient extent to fix the matter in their memories the switch 3| may be thrown to the position illustrated in full lines. This will break the connection to the positive side of the line so that although the switches on the switchboard 25 may be closed current will not pass through the lights and no illumination will be produced. The contact of the switch 3| with the contact 33, however, will make it possible to close individual circuits through the lights 22 by means of the switch contacts 24 controlled by the individual switches 23. Thus the instructor having concluded his instruction and thrown the switch 3| to the position illustrated in full' lines may press the button 26a and call on a member of the class to indicate the letter O. This must be done bypressing the proper button on the main display device. It will be observed that pressing the button 216a again connects the wire 2|} to the negative side of the source of supply andthrough the lamp 22 and to the open contact members 24 which in turn are connected to the wire 34 which leads to the contact 33 which is connected by the switch 3| to the light 32 to the other side of the source of supply. Thus if a pupil presses the switch 23a directly under the letter O and associated with the switch in the compartment behind the letter it will close the contact 24 and complete a circuit through the light 22 thus illuminating the letter 0, thus showing to the instructor, to the class and to the individual pupil that he has properly answered the inquiry of the instructor. Since the instructor has closed only the switch 26a controlling the light under the letter 0 closing any other than switch 23a on the main display device by the pupil will produce no illumination and consequently by failure to illuminate will indicate that the pupil has been unsuccessful in selecting the proper letter,

It will be noted that throwing the switch 3| will short circuit the various switches 24 and connect all the lights 22 directly to one side of the source of electric current. I

It will be understood that the device readily and thoroughly holds the attention of pupils, arouses their interest and because of the switch selection allowed them tends to rouse a competitive interest that will do much toward helping the learning of proper lessons.

It may be desirable to have some of the compartments larger than others and it may be desirable to have more than one lamp in some of the compartments. Thus while single lamps have been indicated in compartments A'and B, two lamps in parallel have been indicated in 'compartment C. It will be understood, however, that the number of the compartments and the number of'lights in individual compartments forms no part of the present invention which may be embodied in a device having any number of compartments of any suitable size in which there may be' any suitable varying number of lamps.

Only one of the electrical circuits has been traced but it will be understood that the other circuits operate in similar manner to separately control the lights in the individual compartments either wholly from the remote control switch board 25 or from the remote control switch board 25 in cooperation with the local switches 23 depending upon the position of the switch 3|.

The transparencies of course may be of the kind in which the indicia are legible even when they are not illuminated and the instructor may from time to time change their location on the board so that the pupil may not be led to select the buttons by position alone but only when they are associated with the proper indicia.

The invention may be embodied in many other forms of apparatus and it will be understood that there has been illustrated and described one form of apparatus for the purpose of clearly describing the invention and not for the purpose of limiting the invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. An educational display device comprising a series of compartments having open faces, means for holding transparencies bearing indicia at the open faces, lights in each compartment, means adjacent each compartment for connecting the light in the compartment to one side of a source of electric current, means remote from the device for connecting the lights selectively to the other side of the source of electric current and means for short circuiting the means adjacent the compartments'and connecting the lights directly to the first mentioned side of the source of electric current;

2. An educational display device comprising a series'of compartments having open faces, rolls at the sides of the device, a strip on the rolls carrying transparent indicia and adapted to move across the open faces of the compartments, lights in each compartment, means adjacent each compartment for connecting the light in the compartment to one side of a source of electric current, means remote from the device for connecting the lights selectively to the other side of the source of electric current and means for short circuiting the means adjacent the compartments and connecting the lights directly to the first mentioned side of the source of electric current.

3. An educational display device comprising a series of compartments having open faces, transparencies bearing indicia at the open faces, lights in the compartments, remote means for selectively controlling the lights in an individual compartment, means adjacent each compartment cooperating with the remote means for controlling the contained light and means for short circuiting the adjacent means and causing the remote means alone to control the lights selectively.

4. An educational display device comprising a series of compartments having open faces, transparencies bearing indicia at the open faces, lights in the compartments, remote means for selectively controlling the lights in an individual compartment, means adjacent each compartment cooperating with the remote means for controlling the contained light and means for causing the remote means alone to control the lights selectively.

EDUARDO PAEZ PUMAR; 

